Burns must change or he’s toast, says Cook
The sight of Sir Alastair Cook, as fit as ever as he approaches his 37th birthday, analysing england’s latest debacle in the BT studio yesterday was a wistful reminder of past Ashes glory.
how england could do with the man whose mountain of runs did so much to win the Ashes in Australia 10 years ago, and how maddeningly difficult it remains for them to find an opening partnership remotely close to the prolific Cook and Andrew Strauss double act.
One observer on Twitter went as far as to say Cook, Strauss and the No3 on the 2010-11 tour, Jonathan Trott, could do better than england’s current top three if they strapped their pads on again and headed to Australia. And they were only half joking.
It was perhaps stretching the point but Cook, complete with his new two-year contract at essex, would surely fare better than another left-hander in Rory Burns if he left his farm and fledgling media career, and made an international comeback.
It will not happen, of course, because Cook bowed out in the best way possible with that century in his final Test against India at the Oval three years ago and is content to see out his playing days at his beloved Chelmsford.
But england will clearly need another opener in Melbourne on Boxing Day — unless Burns can confound all the odds in the second innings of a second Test that has followed a depressingly familiar tale so far of english gloom.
There is no way Burns can survive another failure at the hands of his nemesis Mitchell Starc, or one of the enthusiastic newcomers Jhye Richardson or Michael Neser.
even if, statistically, he has been england’s next best batter after Joe Root in 2021. And he remains one of the few candidates to replace him as captain, should this series end in another 5-0 thrashing.
The trouble, as David Lloyd for one has long said in these pages, is a technique so quirky and idiosyncratic that it just does not stand up to scrutiny from the very best bowlers in demanding conditions.
So unorthodox is Burns that, truly, it is remarkable he has been able to build a Test career that has seen him make three centuries in 30 Tests. Character and temperament have clearly taken the Surrey captain far but they are unlikely to take him much further.
Cook chooses his words carefully as a pundit and told Sportsmail last year that ‘friendship means more than a headline’ when assessing his approach to criticising players he knows so well.
So his comments after a dismal second day in Adelaide would not have been made easily. The former Asheswinning england captain and record run-scorer basically said Burns would have to change that very individual technique if he is to survive at Test level.
‘You’re always told in international cricket to do what you’ve done in the county game — don’t change the way you play,’ said Cook, forming another good partnership — this time for BT, with his keeper-batsman from the 2010-11 side Matt Prior.
‘But it’s probably getting to the stage now where he’ll have to sit down and go, “This is what I’ve got with my technique. If I want to play longer for england, to play 60, 70 or 80 Tests, what do I need to improve?”
‘This does work for Rory Burns on occasion but to be more consistent early on in his innings he really needs to think about how to get that bat coming down straighter.
‘It’s still in his hands. he will bat again in this match unless something extraordinary happens and if he gets a hundred, he will play more games.’
A second-innings hundred for Burns would appear something of a long shot the way Starc is lining him up in this series but unless he manages it, england will have to turn to Zak Crawley to open in the third Test.
Or perhaps make an SOS call to a certain left-hander currently spending his nights in a television studio.